Ello: an ad free social media network that is seeing explosive growth

Ello is a new, no-ad social media network that launched in early 2014. After seeing slow, steady growth in its early months, it saw explosive growth in September seeing a reported 31,000 requests for membership every hour!

Here's an example of an Ello profile featuring @grindpattern.

Just this week, Ello raised $5.5 million and filed itself as a public-benefit corporation with a promise to never sell users' data or sell ad space or place ads on the network. Ello will make money, instead, by selling added functionality to its social network to users through its online store.

The approach of excluding advertisers from a social network is intriguing. Twitter saw its massive growth during an ad-free period of its history. Instagram is still booming and has fewer ways for advertisers to reach social media users than ad-infiltrated Facebook.

Right now, users are added to Ello by invite or request only. I've submitted a request for an account on Ello and look forward to watching it evolve. If you're interested in requesting an account, click here.